The advent of personal video players, personal data assistants, smart telephones, global positioning systems, and the like has put an extreme amount of pressure on packaging manufacturers. The increased function and reduced size of these personal devices requires innovative approaches to package more function in a smaller space. There is also a requirement to reduce the interconnect complexity of the printed circuit board associated with these devices.
The changes in memory packaging are a key example in the evolution of integrated circuit packaging. As memory requirements increase so does the number of integrated circuits stacked in a package. System in Package (SIP) designs may include many different integrated circuits in a single package. These designs typically use stacking techniques that may layer several different integrated circuits in a single package. While these techniques do increase integrated circuit density in the package, they can also be devastating to yields in the manufacturing process. A single faulty integrated circuit or loose interconnect can cause the whole package to be non-functional.
The economic pressures that come along with the booming consumer electronics phenomenon will not allow the use of a component that is not available in high volume or carries too high of a price tag. Most multiple integrated circuit packaging systems have a predictable failure rate associated with their manufacturing process. In order to enhance the yields of the manufacturing flow, testing may be performed at multiple levels of the assembly process in order to weed out failures as early as possible. Each testing event increases the cost of a finished device. A balance must be struck between testing an intermediate level product and having an acceptable end of the line manufacturing yield.
Many techniques and packaging technologies have attempted to solve the balance, but as the increase in embedded function continues other approaches must be found. This issue impacts the capacity and reliability of memory packages, system in chip packages, and advanced micro processor designs.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit package system with stacked devices. In view of the rate of development of consumer electronics and the insatiable demand for memory devices at low manufacturing costs, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to save costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures, adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.